Psychosomatic Issues

Is anyone interested in psychosomatic links to Sleep Apnea or other health issues they're addressing?

I've been using a CPAP machine for a couple of years' now.

I've been spending a lot of time recently looking at possible psychosomatic causes of the health issues that I''m addressing (mental fatigue/lethargy as the main priority. restless legs, feelings of claustrophobia in my own body, recurrent feelings of suffocation, pain from earlier operation sites, an intermittent chronic dry cough and potential side-effects of prescription drug (Imipramine/Tofranil & Gabapentin/Neurontin) withdrawal) and came across some interesting articles suggesting that Sleep Apnea is particularly prevalent in those with anxiety disorders, PTSD and potentially-psychosomatic conditions.

I should emphasise that psychosomatic doesn't mean that it's all in someone's head, that they're weak or that they're faking. A surprisingly large proportion of people with medical symptoms have no underlying physical cause and the impact of 'placebo' issues are far more complicated and widespread than most people believe (for example, even pills that patients take knowing full well that they have no active ingredient in them have a considerable success rate)

I'm down. I'm having way too many problems right now with this therapy. I'm about ready to take my machine and smash it against a brick wall.

So anything will help.

NearDeadCentre wrote:Is anyone interested in psychosomatic links to Sleep Apnea or other health issues they're addressing?

I've been using a CPAP machine for a couple of years' now.

I've been spending a lot of time recently looking at possible psychosomatic causes of the health issues that I''m addressing (mental fatigue/lethargy as the main priority. restless legs, feelings of claustrophobia in my own body, recurrent feelings of suffocation, pain from earlier operation sites, an intermittent chronic dry cough and potential side-effects of prescription drug (Imipramine/Tofranil & Gabapentin/Neurontin) withdrawal) and came across some interesting articles suggesting that Sleep Apnea is particularly prevalent in those with anxiety disorders, PTSD and potentially-psychosomatic conditions.

I should emphasise that psychosomatic doesn't mean that it's all in someone's head, that they're weak or that they're faking. A surprisingly large proportion of people with medical symptoms have no underlying physical cause and the impact of 'placebo' issues are far more complicated and widespread than most people believe (for example, even pills that patients take knowing full well that they have no active ingredient in them have a considerable success rate)

You might want to look at this site, http://survivingantidepressants.org/ to see if anything applies regarding drug withdrawal issues.

49er

Thanks. I've used that site a few times, albeit the help I got was a bit limited. I don't want to take this thread at a tangent (I'm looking for people's experience and thoughts on psychosomatic issues and, after all, the forum's for CPAP), but coming off Imipramine/Tofranil and Gabapentin/Neorontin was a nightmare for me, it eventually took almost 2 years and I often wonder if some of my symptoms are related to having been on these drugs. I haven't noticed any effect on my CPAP use or my SpO2 monitoring though.